Briatore aiming towards 20 races

Since it seems to be trandy to suggest ideas to make F1 cheaper and more interesting, it may come to no surprise that Flavio Briatore has his say too. And unlike some other opinions, the Renault team boss often has interesting ideas. It is not different this time.

Flavio has confirmed the idea of many F1 enthousiasts that Formula One is currently too much about testing. He therefore suggests the teams should do an effort to get 20 races on the calender. To compensate, and even drop costs further in total, by reducing test sessions by 50%.

However, as fans may be very exited by this idea, it may need some persuasion power to convince all the teams of the benefits, and probably not the least Ferrari. The latter has always been against any limitations of testing. Another problem may be the concorde agreement. This contract between the teams and the FIA runs until 2008, and only provides in 17 races a year. This year is already an exception to this The 2004 season boasts 18 events as it is, the most ever, as the Concorde

The extra races would be a heavy burden on the teams and rivers, especially with their current routine of racing one week, testing the next, however Briatore has a n answer for that too, cut the testing allowance down by 50%.

“From an entrepreneurial point of view, it's nonsense to cover five times as much test mileage as race mileage," Briatore explained in Capital. “The public want to see thrilling battles but, instead of giving them what they want, we're giving them extremely complex technology.”